


Black and White

by misura



Category: The Imitation Game (2014)
Genre: Chess, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-21
Updated: 2016-05-21
Packaged: 2018-06-09 20:09:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6921286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hugh offers to teach Alan how to play chess.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Black and White

He'd brought the board, the pieces into the office. Much easier to put together than Alan's machine - about as much help at winning them the war as Alan's machine had been, thus far, although hope sprung eternal. Hugh was not, by nature, a pessimist - or even a realist, from a certain point of view.

"Would you like to play?"

Alan sniffled. Hugh had yet to catch him with a handkerchief - which, the current smart money had it, would be enormous and either red or white. "Why, it's only a, a game."

"Afraid you'll lose, are you?" National champion. _Twice._ A man could be forgiven a certain amount of pride, even confidence.

Granted, none of his opponents had been even remotely like Alan.

Alan sniffled again. "Hardly."

Hugh might not have won the title ( _twice_ ) if they had. Judges tended to look disfavorably on competitors hitting other competitors over the head with chess boards, regardless of how much those people might have had it coming.

"Then why not?" Hugh's smile had lured in trickier, cagier animals. Mostly female ones, of course, and human - both adjectives that might or might not fully apply to Alan.

"That, that is not the question now, is it? The question is, why should I? Will, will it prove something to you? Beating me at chess?"

Women did not play chess, or at least not well, in Hugh's experience. Joan might, but only a very foolish man would imagine anything might be accomplished by pushing his luck _there_.

Besides, he had no particular desire for word to get around that he'd been beaten by a woman. Much better, much sweeter to be talked about as the man who'd beaten Alan Turing.

"You, you are good at chess. I, I am only a novice," Alan said.

Humility? Surely not. "I'll teach you." A generous offer, and one he might regret, had there been any chance of Alan taking him up on it. "As a friend." With anyone else, that would have been laying it on a little thick.

Predictably: "No." Alan shook his head.

 _Coward._ "Alan." One wondered how Joan did it. The purity of her intentions, perhaps.

Hugh was no more virtuous than he was humble. A humble man would not have gotten this job.

"If, if we are truly friends, as you say, then you, you will respect my opinion. My choice."

A perfect opening. He might still back away, of course. People said of Hugh that he was rather attractive; if they spoke of Alan at all, it was usually only to say that he was odd.

"Well. It's not exactly a choice now, is it? Not for you."

Alan frowned. "I, I don't - "

"Yes. You do. For God's sake, man, you're working as a cryptographer." Working at deciphering messages in a language he didn't even speak - not that anyone who _did_ speak German had fared any better tackling Enigma thus far. Still. "I _know_. Peter _knows_. We all know."

Peter only knew because John had told him, of course, in some vague, misguided attempt to either protect or shock him; Hugh hadn't quite worked out which one it had been yet. He didn't see how it mattered, other than to firmly confirm John as their weakest link, now that Alan had gotten rid of their two shining beacons of mediocrity.

Alan sat down. Picked up one of the pieces and stared at it uncomfortably. "A, a rook, I believe? Is, is that the right term?"

Fair enough, and it wasn't as if there was all that much to talk about anyway. "Yes."

Alan nodded once, sharply. "If you win, that, that will only make you a bully."

"I've been called worse." Much worse. Deservedly so, of course; there were far worse things a man might do than beat another man at chess. Although, was being called a cad worse than being called a bully?

"Yes," Alan said. _Not_ answering the question, clearly.

"So. Would you like me to explain the rules to you?"

Alan gestured with the rook. "Please."


End file.
